Ten Ways to Improve Your Hearthstone Game

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June 4, 2014

Don’t Kick Your Robot here with some helpful hints on how we move through the ladder. [DKMR]Varranis wants you to be ready to start playing ranked and move from rank 25 to rank LEGENDARY! Check out our tips and tricks!

Ten Ways to Improve Your Game

I thought this week we would go over 10 ways to improve your game. A lot of these relate to one another and aren’t applicable to every situation, but they’re important concepts to consider when developing your play style.

1. Maximize Your Mana

Generally if you’re spending all of your mana every turn you’re making stronger, more efficient plays than a player who isn’t. If you have 3 mana available and the choice between playing a 2 drop or a 3 drop, the 3 drop will usually be right. The 3 drop will usually be a slightly stronger card (otherwise you might want to reconsider why you’re playing that 3 drop). It will also be more difficult to play that 3 drop on future turns since it costs more mana. Playing the more expensive card now frees up your mana on future turns.

I find this concept especially important when using the Coin. Identifying the turn on which you will have the most difficultly maximizing your mana is a good way to determine when to use the Coin. Most of the time, the extra mana from the Coin will allow you to maximize your mana on that turn.
Note that it is not always right to maximize your mana. It’s a good concept to keep in mind to make sure you’re making efficient plays, but NEVER make a bad play merely because you have the mana to do so. When your Knife Juggler gets slain by a Fiery War Axe, your pleas of maximized mana will not grant the poor gnome any solace in his futile demise.

2. Accept RNG(J)esus Into Your Life

I’ve said this before, but RNG happens. There’s been a lot of talk about Tinkmaster Overspark and Nat Pagle recently. Should they be banned in tournament play? Do they make the game unfun? Do they discourage skillful play? Those are all interesting questions, but if you want to win, they don’t matter. What matters is that your Pagles fish better and your Tinkmasters tink smarter. The first step to accepting RNG(j)esus into your life is to realize that you have an influence on RNG.

The first decision you make that influences RNG is deck construction. You don’t have to play Tinkmaster or Pagle. Clearly they can be powerful, but you need to accept the devil’s bargain you make when you slide Tinkmaster Overspark into your deck. He’s not always going to tink a Squirrel. It’s usually a very poor play to tink a 5/5 hoping for a Squirrel. If you’re in a situation where you need Tinkmaster to do that, you likely lost the game earlier, and Tinkmaster’s giving you a 50% out another card couldn’t provide. Tinkmaster is really only a good card when you expect to tink a Cairne, Ragnaros, or other powerful minion. With most popular decks at the moment only running one or two reasonable Tinkmaster targets, it may even be time for the all-powerful Tinkmaster to shed his staple status. He’s a good pick if you expect a lot of big Legendaries in the meta, but fairly poor otherwise.

The second decision you make is how you play with RNG during the game. A good example of this is our above discussion of what you’re tinking. Tinking an Earth Elemental is always good value and the RNG doesn’t matter. Tinking an Ancient of Lore is a 50/50 gamble that can lose you the game in certain dire situations. I usually like to discuss Knife Juggler here as well. A key to many aggressive decks is using your Knife Jugglers most effectively. By sequencing your attacks appropriately, you can increase the odds of hitting certain targets. When playing Knife Juggler, I typically envision the best and worst outcomes and play in a way that enables the best outcome. Harvest Golem is a common card that comes up here. If you have a way to kill the front half of a Harvest Golem (without running the Knife Juggler into it) before playing minions, there’s a good chance you can juggle a knife at the back half and save your Knife Juggler. Whenever a situation involving RNG comes up, make sure you think smart and maximize positive outcomes.

One last point on RNG: don’t let it put you on tilt. I’ve seen far too many players rage at unfortunate RNG and lose games not to RNG but unfortunate misplays they make while enraged. Don’t let yourself be a minion with Enrage: Lose the game.

3. Know Who’s the Beatdown

A lot of people have written entire articles on this concept already, and it’s no wonder why. In a game where minions are your primary removal spells, it’s crucial to understand which player is the aggressor. As one would expect, aggressive decks are typically the aggressor and control decks usually are not. Things get a little trickier in aggro mirrors and control mirrors.

As a decision making shortcut, I generally ask myself, “If I attack my opponent’s face, will my opponent have to attack my minions?” If the answer to this question is yes, you’re probably the beatdown. Attacking your opponent’s minions in this situation often means you’re straight up losing the damage you could have done. Your opponent is going to make the trades for you because they have to. Obviously there are some situations where going for the face will allow your opponent more favorable trades. In these situations, it is often right to make trades that prevent your opponent from making the most favorable trades and go to the face with your remaining minions. Taunt is a very direct representation of this concept. It is rare that you don’t want to go for the face with your Taunt minions since your opponent has to attack them.

4. Make Your Opponent’s Turn Awkward

What the heck is that supposed to mean? Essentially, keep in mind that your opponent can only play cards during their turn. Aside from Secrets, there are few to no ways for your opponent to interact with you once it’s your turn. You’ve got all the control during your turn, and you want to ensure your opponent’s next turn will be a little…weird…

With the popularity of certain strategies, it’s usually not that hard to figure out your opponent’s game plan. Make sure you consider what they are most likely to do on their next turn and what their primary goals are for the game. If they’re a Druid playing Force of Nature and Savage Roar, make sure you have enough life or a Taunt or two to survive turn 9. Taunts in general are a really good example of making your opponent’s turn awkward. You want to make your opponent do things they’d rather not. Attacking a Taunt minion is usually one of those things. Another way to do this is by making attacks your opponent would like to do less optimal. For example, if you have an Azure Drake and your opponent has a Chillwind Yeti, pinging the Yeti in an incidental fashion (Hero Power, Swipe, etc.) will make attacking the Drake a far less favorable play since he will also lose the Yeti.

5. Play To Your Outs

Sometimes the conventional best play is actually a sure way to lose. If your opponent gets far enough ahead, there can be situations where you will lose before you can catch up by making favorable trades. In these situations, you should play in a way that maximizes the impact of your remaining outs. Perhaps the only way you can win is to go for the face and top deck a particular Charge minion (I’m looking at you Leeroy). Your best play could be to forego playing a Fire Elemental and instead using your Hero Power to try for a Spell Damage Totem to combo with the Bloodmage Thalnos in your hand and the Lightning Storm you hope to draw. Frequently with my Paladin deck I’ll find myself in situations where I can trade minions to survive a turn or two longer or go to the face and put myself in a position to draw one of my many Charge minions for game. The latter option frequently delivers more wins due to the way my deck is constructed.

Always make sure you’re not only thinking about how you’ll play the next few turns, but how you plan on winning the game. Constructing a game winning scenario is difficult and takes many turns of planning.

6. Pack A Few Surprises

It’s always good to surprise your opponent. How do you think players felt having Force of Nature and Savage Roar played against them before it was popular? I can assure you, they were surprised. And the players playing the combo likely won quite a few games because of it.

The lesson here is that it’s often worth playing a couple powerful cards your opponent won’t expect. If the cards are unexpected, it’s less likely your opponent will be prepared for them. In the right meta, cards like Mind Control Tech, The Black Knight, Big Game Hunter, Crazed Alchemist, Millhouse Manastorm, and many others can be surprising and game winning. If your opponent expects Mind Control Tech, they’re never going to have more than three minions. If they don’t, well…you may get to play a game swinging Mind Control Tech. Which of these cards is good is always changing, but it’s important to play a card or two that will catch your opponent off guard.

7. Research, Research, Research

Not every card is created equal, and some cards are more equal against other cards. It’s always critical to understand the current meta and how you can take advantage of it. This takes some research. Fortunately, you’re off to a good start by reading this article.

Research doesn’t have to be hard, and you probably do a lot of it already. Listen to podcasts, tune in to streams, read articles, browse forums, even playing on the ladder is a form of research. Knowing is half the battle. Once you know what’s popular you can tech your decks appropriately to combat it or play a different deck entirely. Research is also a great way to learn how to improve your technical play.

8. Check Twice

Dude. Don’t be the guy who misses lethal. Even great players can miss when they have game on board (but rarely, they are great after all). Always do your math twice. Don’t snap cast a spell; see if there’s a better target first. Look for unconventional plays. The ability to identify the best play in a unique scenario is one of the greatest defining factors between the good players and the best players.

9. Practice What Matters

It’s an oft used idiom that practice makes perfect. However, I caution you to not just practice, but learn. Just grinding a bunch of games with a deck won’t make you an expert with it. You need to learn why your deck works the way it does, the purpose each card serves, and why certain cards are good or bad in a certain situation. When building my Paladin deck, it was crucial for me to understand that the reason I was playing Equality was to get around Taunt minions. Once I understood that, it was easy for me to switch them out for Ironbeak Owls; a change that improved the deck immensely.

It’s easy to judge success by win percentages, but when you’re practicing, the results of individual interactions are far more important than who wins. Try to identify what cards you need in various situations and why. Think of cards you may not be running that would be good against a popular strategy and try them out. Don’t judge that new card by whether you win or lose, but by how it performs in the situation you chose it for. Was it as good as you expected? If so, it may be worth playing even if you don’t win often. Perhaps it’s a different card you need to change.

10. Build A Community

This may sound cheesy, but playing Hearthstone with friends or finding a community of others who enjoy the game is one of the best ways to improve your game (especially if they’re better than you). Having a group to bounce ideas around with and test those ideas is a surefire way to stumble upon useful information. It also gives you an outlet to do serious testing without putting your rank on the ladder at risk. So get out there, make friends, and play some Hearthstone! We encourage you to head to our forums and ask questions, post your decks, believe it or not your questions help us get better!

[DKMR]varranis streams every Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM EST at http://www.twitch.tv/varranis. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with times and the days they stream!

Decks to Watch Out For

Here are a few decks that I’ve been seeing on the ladder or in tournaments recently. I’ve seen a lot of my Paladin Aggro deck, and I’ve included an updated build below. Reynad’s Warrior deck has been around for a few weeks now, but it’s still all over the ladder at higher ranks. This is the Shaman Midrange build I played in the recent Hearthstone Players Invitational. I highly recommend this deck for tournaments if you expect a lot of Druid, Warrior Control, or other control or midrange strategies. Note that some players have been using Chillwind Yeti over Unbound Elemental. Lava Burst is an easy answer to Chillwind Yeti or Ancient of Lore and also doubles as reach. ENoR’s Rogue is an example of the “Miracle” Rogue decks littering the lower ranks of the ladder. It’s combolicious, and fairly difficult to play correctly. As I’m sure most of you have noticed, there’s a bunch of aggro on the ladder after the reset. I suggest choosing your deck accordingly.

28 Comments

“trading” a minion means killing the other hero’s minion with one of your own, in a way that both minions die. A good trade would be if you had something like a 2/3 on the board, and your opponent had a 5/2. Obviously you’d make the 2/3 minion kill the 5/2, because it’s a decent trade & your opponent can’t use that 5 damage for something else (your face or another high cost minion). Idk if that makes sense but I tried to explain it as best I could

An “out” is a play from a player who is losing that brings them back into the game. Possible example: Drawing and playing a Flamestrike when behind on board. Playing to this out might involve playing a frost nova and attacking you opponents minions who have above 4 health, while hoping to draw a Flamestrike from your deck.

The article should mention that you need to do the reverse of this when ahead, play to your opponents “outs.” Possible example: Don’t unnecessarily flood the board with minions against a Mage with 6 or more mana crystals. When you are ahead your primary objective is to stay ahead. Not enough is written about this. It is one of the most important tactics in any strategy game that people even at the highest levels don’t understand.

Hi Varranis!
I’ve been trying your Paladin aggro deck. I have yet to get all the cards in the list, so I made a few modifications while I’m saving up dust.
What are your thoughts on Redemption and Eye for an Eye?
I’ve been playing with both, and while not as expeditive as the rest of your deck, I’ve found that they are very unexpected and surprising cards.
Redemption synergizes super well with low cost Deathrattle mobs and with charge, and Eye for an Eye is a great finisher combined with a weapon on a taunt mob. Both can be used offensively, are dirt cheap.
Eye for an Eye can be really surprising if you played a Divine Favor to draw many buffs but no Owl for that taunt in front of you. Why not boost that taunt and swing at it with your weapon for game?
Thoughts?

A lot of people have been recommending Redemption, so I’ve been trying it out myself with mixed results. It can definitely be pretty amazing. It’s good for clearing Taunts and can also help you maintain an early board presence. In one game I opened Leper Gnome and Redemption on the draw. I turn 1 coined Gnome and Redemption knowing my Shaman opponent would likely mulligan aggressively for Earth Shocks and other cheap removal. He Shocked the Gnome and I was able to win off the momentum Redemption gave me. However, I’ve had other games where Redemption did literal nothing.

Eye for an Eye is even more situational than Redemption. It’s very easy for your opponent to play around and needs to be doing 4+ damage consistently before even being worth considering. That is an interesting use for Eye for an Eye. I’d be curious to see how frequently that comes up.

All of Paladin’s secrets are pretty situational. Noble Sacrifice is the least situational, which is largely why I play it. It’s also great for protecting Golems and Wolfriders. I’m curious if it may just be better to run more one drops like Elven Archer and Young Priestess instead.

Yeah definitely. I just thought that when triggered by a weapon, the card has merit, as its outcome is totally predictable and impossible to counter (except by Counterspell of course). It works really well for clearing high attack power minions (like enemy charge monsters) with your weapon, or as a final blow on a taunt monster you can’t overcome (druid 8/8 taunt in mind here). I figured most 2-3 drops have around 3-4 attack power, so it can be quite consistent to get 4 damage. Later game, it’s really easy to get more, but it’s more of a question of timing it correctly, as you need the health to survive the minion’s blow, or you need to first overcome a low power high health taunt minion protecting juicier, high attack power targets.

Since I don’t have all cards yet, I simply added 2 Eye for an Eyes and 1 Light’s Justice, and it seems to be doing okay! I’m a bit bummed that we can’t have both secrets at the same time, that would have been just insane burst.

Most of the popular players right now are Starcraft and WoW pros, which doesn’t necessarily correlate to fantastic constructed play in Hearthstone. For streamers focused on constructed play, check out my team’s website:

I’m sorry but how in the world is that Paladin deck going to address taunts or any large creatures? It seems like it’s lacking a fair amount of the necessary removal tools unless you happen to get the perfect draw, you’re going to be out by turn eight or so. Two thumbs down for that one…way too gimmicky for me!

Ironbeak Owls are exclusively for Taunts. Typically you only need to deal with one or two. If you don’t draw Owl or they play a large number of Taunts, you can use Truesilver or Blessing to bash through them. I’ve been trying a Tinkmaster recently as well.

This is a terrific article.
Point 3 is probably my favorite. Attacking a minion with your taunt can sometimes cost you the game. Your opponent may not have an answer without using their minion and you lost out on damage in the exchange.